Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/224

 204 THE DECLINE AND FALL tinction,^! these vain pretences were swept away by the last edict of Theodosius ; which inflicted a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans.*^-' This prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and comprehensive terms. " It is our will and pleasure," says the emperor, "that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however exalted or liowever humble may be their rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place, to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim." The act of sacrificing and the practice of divination by the entrails of the victim are declared (without any regard to the object of the enquiry) a crime of high-treason against the state ; which can be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody and atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and honour of religion ; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine, are specially enumerated and condemned ; and the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies subjects the offender to the forfeiture of the house or estate where they have been performed ; and, if he has artfully chosen the property of another for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of gold, or more than one thousand pounds sterling. A fine, not less considerable, is imposed on the connivance of the secret enemies of religion, who shall neglect the duty of their respective stations, either to reveal or to punish the guilt of idolatry. Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, which were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud and unanimous applause of the Christian world .•^•^ "^ Honorius tolerated these rusiic festivals (A.D. 399). " Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ulla superstitione damnabili." But nine years afterwards he found it neces- sary to reiterate and enforce the same proviso (Codex Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 17, 19). [The ordinance of certain heathen feasts in Campania, published by Imperial sanction in 387 A.D., is very instructive, proving that Paganism of a kind was tolerated by Theodosius. See Schiller, ii. p. 435.] '2 Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin (Remarks on Eccles. History, vol. iv. p. 134) censures, with becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this intolerant law. '>■'' Such a charge should not be lightly made ; but it may surely be justified by the authority of St. Augustin, who thus addresses the Donatists : " Quis nostrOm, quis vestrCmi non laudat leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrihcia Pagan- orum? Et certe longe ibi poena severior constituta est ; illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est." Epist. xciii. No, 10, quoted by LeClerc (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. viii. p. 277), who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of the victorious Christians.